Shop assistant beats company director in court

The Federal Magistrates Court has ordered a company director to personally pay nearly $15,000 to a shop assistant who was unlawfully sacked from a jewellery store in Sydney.

Maree Filipczuk was sacked after writing to the taxman and the NSW Department of Industrial Relations about unpaid superannuation.

She asked a company director Marco Hwezawe whether she was being paid according to the award. He became agitated and spoke to her manager, who then sacked her.

Filipczuk’s union took the case on her behalf (costing it $50,000). Because the company had since gone into administration, federal magistrate Frank Turnen ordered Hwezawe to pay a $4950 penalty, plus $9729.46 in unpaid wages and superannuation.

Filipczuk’s barrister is reported as saying that the case is significant because it shows that prosecutions can be made against directors personally when they are complicit in a breach.